Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Announces Notice of Allowance for U.S. Patent Application Covering Vosaroxin Compositions

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNSS +9.25% today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Notice of Allowance for U.S. Patent Application No. 12/982,785 claiming certain compositions related to Sunesis' lead drug candidate, vosaroxin. The patent will grant Sunesis exclusive rights to certain Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient compositions of vosaroxin, as well as the final product related to such compositions, and provides patent exclusivity to mid 2030 in the United States. A family of corresponding patent applications are pending in the U.S. and internationally."The '785 patent is an important aspect of our intellectual property estate. Once granted, the patent will provide significant additional patent protection and support market exclusivity for vosaroxin out nearly two decades to 2030," stated Daniel Swisher, Chief Executive Officer of Sunesis. "The successful pursuit of this patent is another step in our intellectual property strategy, a strategy which provides Sunesis with greater certainty in pursuing the full clinical and commercial potential of vosaroxin. We look forward to additional important milestones for vosaroxin this year, including an interim analysis of the Phase 3 VALOR trial."Sunesis is currently enrolling patients with more than 110 active sites open in 14 countries in the VALOR trial, a Phase 3, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pivotal clinical trial of vosaroxin in combination with cytarabine in first relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.